400 Asylum-Seekers Moved Out of Crowded Lesbos Camp

Society

400 Asylum-Seekers Moved Out of Crowded Lesbos Camp

September 25, 2018

19 year old Nermi Zeitoun from Idlib , Syria, holds her three month old baby Mohhamed Lousman after they disembark from a ferry, at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Nermi Zeitoun, Mohhamed Lousman

PIRAEUS, Greece (AP) — About 400 asylum-seekers who had been held in the severely overcrowded Moria migrant camp on the Greek island of Lesbos have arrived in Greece’s main port of Piraeus to be transferred to other camps and residences on the mainland.

The asylum-seekers, mainly families from Syria, Afghanistan and African countries, arrived Tuesday onboard an overnight ferry from Lesbos. They are among around 2,000 people whom the government has pledged to move out of Moria, a facility built for 3,100 people but which is at nearly three times capacity.

Charities have slammed conditions in the camp, citing cases of sexual attack, deplorable sanitation and an increase in suicide attempts among residents. The local regional governor has threatened to shut the facility unless the government improves conditions.

FILE – A Syrian woman with her children disembarks from a ferry, at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

19 year old Nermi Zeitoun from Idlib , Syria, holds her three month old baby Mohhamed Lousman after they disembark from a ferry, at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

FILE – Refugees and migrants carry their belongings after they disembark from a ferry, at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

FILE – Refugees and migrants carry their belongings after they disembark from a ferry, at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. About 400 migrants and refugees arrived at the port from the island of Lesbos as authorities have been moving hundreds of migrants deemed to be vulnerable from the overcrowded Moria camp to camps on the mainland. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

FILE – Refugees and migrants carry their belongings after they disembark from a ferry, at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

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